October 05, 2018

NHL the week in preview October 5, 2018

The NHL Network runs a day/night doubleheader on Saturday with the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL Global Series in Gothenburg, Sweden. The U.S. channel will take the City feed for the Habs in Pittsburgh on Hockey Night in Canada. The NHL Network will also have the debut of Hometown Hockey from Kitchener, ON as the Maple Leafs are in Chicago.

CBC starts its 2018-2019 season with the Battle of Ontario in the early slot and the rematch of Wednesday's late game with the Canucks in Calgary.

The City TV season debut has the Habs traveling to visit Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh.

Rogers Sportsnet fits in some games in and around the MLB playoffs. The regional channels will carry the Edmonton Oilers in Gothenburg, Sweden on Saturday afternoon in eastern Canada as part of the 2018 NHL Global Series. The channels also have the initial Hometown Hockey from Kitchener, ON as the Maple Leafs travel to Chicago.

Rogers Sportsnet One carries the Wednesday night game with Philadelphia crossing the border to play in Ottawa.

Rogers Sportsnet 360 is drafted to help out on Hockey Night in Canada with the Winnipeg Jets in Dallas. The channel also helps out on Thursday with the Vancouver Canucks in Tampa.

Everything we have seen points to a 7-day window for the NHL Center Ice free preview. We will leave up the Wednesday and Thursday listings just in case.

As we mentioned earlier this week, Bob Cole will call 10 early season games for Hockey Night in Canada. Cole starts out calling the Habs in Pittsburgh. Nice going to the NHL Network for picking up that game.

Based on the opening weekend, Dave Randorf will spend a lot of time out west on Saturday nights.

Brian Burke is the new addition to the panel on Hockey Night in Canada. Unfortunately, Burke is not replacing Nick Kypreos. The loss of Daren Millard and addition of Burke made the studio commentary a lot more interesting. Doug MacLean still drags down the conversation.

Scott Moore was a key force in getting the NHL package in Canada for Rogers Sportsnet. Moore had been in charge at CBC Sports, which did give Rogers an advantage. Moore is leaving Rogers Sportsnet at the end of the month.

We don't know if Moore was one of those people fighting to keep people such as Glenn Healy, Bob Cole, and Mike Johnson or pushing them out the door. Rogers has tried hard to make sure no one on the air says anything controversial or interesting, except for Don Cherry.

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One thing to note in regards to Scott Moore. When they were building up for year 1 of the NHL package they had Gord Cutler involved as the man in charge of their hockey production. He was lured from TSN. He was let go right before the 2016 playoffs. Undoubtedly some Cutler's ideas went out the door with him, most notably restricting Don Cherry's air time. With Healy and others that were let go, it simply came down to being expendable during a time of cost-cutting.